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Weekend Reading – Saving Money: Better Late Than Never Edition

by Darwin on January 26, 2012

Over the past 2 weeks, I went kinda nuts running around the house seeking out cold air drafts and plugging them up. This might sound like a stereotypical PF topic, but seriously, I found areas in my house I’d never even considered (and no, this isn’t a real post LOL – segue way into my weekly roundup). For instance, I re-caulked some windows that had little cracks around the corners (I could feel the cold air even with tiny little cracks!). I installed those little insulated cutouts behind outlets against outside walls. I even identified that our sliding door has a big channel at the top with nothing in the center but cold air coming through and plugged that up). Finally, I bought that cheesy looking yet effective plastic covering to blow-dry on our dining room windows. My wife hates how it looks but I reasoned that we’re NEVER in that room anyway, so who cares?

(doesn't look that bad does it?)

My only regret is that I waited until January to do all this stuff. At least we’ll get the benefit through March. I have some other ideas for sealing up leaks in our basement at bit and perhaps adding some more insulation myself in the attic (paying for the service is like a 15 year payback by my estimates).

Why the energy savings kick? Why not? I figure the ROI is quite high and the time required to do some of these little jobs is like 20 minutes here, 30 there, so not a huge time drain either.

With that, here are some reads from the week as well as a shout-out to sites hosting my content:

Amazing what a little time investment with a caulking gun and some weatherstripping will do to the power bill. With a little tracking, probably could track it by minutes spent vs. dollars saved on the power bill.

I didn’t even get a ping back, but just stopped by to see what’s new and noticed the inclusion; thanks! 🙂

I am a bit pissed that our builder went cheap on the windows in our condo. We are surrounded by a highway loop so it gets noisy, and too much cold comes in via diffusion through the glass, even though there are no drafts.

hah…yeah, keep this kind of stuff as a lead in. I saw the title and I thought “oh, great, someone is mimicking GRS…” His blog is excellent, don’t get me wrong, I’m just a little tired of hearing about the exterme examples people go to in order to save money. (As a quick note, I have only read GRS for about the last year, and I have looked into some previous posts, which has a lot of useful information.)

If you do the extra insulation, definently pick up the self-help guide at the box store. And if you do the blowin insulation, go with the Pink Stuff, not the enviro-green whatever-reused recycle office waste.

Great-Stuff Expanding foam works well, but only use it in area’s where you won’t care about that stuff staining something. And do a few bench tests so you understand how much that stuff really does expand.

And if you can’t fix all the drafts, get a woodstove (not a fireplace or insert). A house with a mild draft will fuel a woodstove very well. Its 28 degrees outside, and I’m sitting inside an 1100 sq/ft rancher at 79 degrees. No joke – and I didn’t burn all that many logs today. Maybe 60lb’s at the most. And of course my seven foot ceilings help as well. Buy HearthStone stoves and Duratech flue only! High initial cost but tons of savings and great performance in the long run!